Essay

42% of Startups Fail Due to No Real Market Need, Here's How to Solve That

Sayanee Bhowmik · The VC Lens Free Beginner

Built around the well known CB Insights statistic, this piece is refreshingly concrete about what evidence to look for, an existing ugly workaround, like a spreadsheet, a Slack hack, or extra headcount, as the tell that a problem is real. It gives you interview count benchmarks too, so you know roughly when you've talked to enough people to trust the pattern. A quick, practical read before you draft your interview list.

• If there's no existing workaround at all, be suspicious that the problem is real.
• You're usually done interviewing when you hear confirmation more than surprises.
• Ten to twenty well chosen conversations tend to reveal the major patterns.